


Push + Pull

by cecilantro



Series: 100 Days Of Ficlets [38]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-18 23:16:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14223954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cecilantro/pseuds/cecilantro
Summary: Molly looks up,“Oh, cuddle huddle?”





	Push + Pull

**Author's Note:**

> theyve been garbage lately because i have no motivation to breathe and writing good is hard when everything sucks real bad, sorry folks

Nott knows when Caleb isn’t really reading, just flicking through the pages pretending he is. She watches him closely at the table, eyes glued to the strain in his eyes of keeping his expression neutral.   
Mollymauk leans against him a little, and there’s the push-and-pull within him, he wants to spring away, he wants to curl closer, he wants everything and nothing. He wants Molly to fix everything, he wants him to go away, he wants all of Molly, he doesn’t want to get closer. Everything that juxtaposes is everything he wants and needs, it sets him to vibrations, shaking against Mollymauk under Nott’s scruitionising gaze. Jester, to Nott’s left, drapes herself across Beau’s lap, only her hands visible over the top of the table as she stretches overdramatically into the air and complains about being tired. Beau ruffles her hair, chuckling, ignores her otherwise, too invested in Fjord’s words about the hospital, how  _ incredible _ Molly’s performance had been, the mess they’d made, he seems genuinely excited about the havoc they’d wrought. Caleb’s jaw sets a little harder whenever he mentions the Crown’s Guard, Molly seems to be paying rapt attention to Fjord, Caleb knows better. Even though he’s leaned away to rest his chin in his hands, Molly’s tail sneaks up and over Caleb’s thighs, the impression of a hug, it slips into his coat, hidden, coils around him until the tip is pressed flat to Caleb’s spine, brushing back and forth over the definition of the bones, comforting. Caleb pulls a hand from his book to Molly’s tail, gives the section across his legs a gentle, grateful squeeze, Molly can’t help but smile a little at the show of affection, anything is taken greedily.

 

Caleb is still relieved to retire to his room, unpicks himself as he strips to sleep, Nott watches curiously from her bed.   
“Why are you worried?” She asks him, head tilted, “There’s nothing with claws, we’ve done worse than this by ourselves.”   
Caleb frowns, it’s almost a wince, he shrugs his coat off and works on the buckles of his book holsters,   
“That is true, but there are many variables in this con that could go awry, and we are not in control of any of them. You know that it is important to have control when, when undertaking something of this scale.”   
He sets the books and the dagger sheath down, carefully, and begins setting up the Alarm spell. Nott traces him with her eyes as he spreads the magic across the room, whispering the incantations as he moves, there’s the dim glow of the symbols, too tiny to be made out. She doesn’t speak, she knows him well enough to understand when there is more he wants to say but has not quite processed the words for yet,   
“I am, I am worried that we will encounter traps, nobles of such a high standing tend to have powerful and expensive arcane locks to their belongings, and if I am honest, Nott, I am afraid that one or more of us will die along the way.”   
“You’re scared that you’ll die?” Nott asks, and Caleb sighs, mutters the sealing incantation and the thread around the room glows fire-bright for a moment, then fades again, he turns to her,   
“Yes. I have come dangerously close many times, in fact, and I am not ready to die just yet.”   
“Well, that’s ridiculous.” Nott waves airily, turning her eyes from Caleb to her fingers as she fiddles with her cloak catch, “Molly and Fjord have said they’re going to keep you alive. I don’t trust them, but I don’t think they’ll back out on their word like that.”   
Caleb freezes mid-step back to his bed,   
“When did they say this?”   
“Oh.” Nott looks up, startled, she had forgotten the secrecy of the situation, plays it off, “The other day, in, uh… on the way to the Invulnerable Vagrant.”   
Caleb falls very still, very quiet, Nott knows he’s thinking.   
“If you want to talk to them, I don’t think they would turn you away.” Nott points out, and Caleb nods, slowly,   
“Yes. Yes, I would not argue with a little reassurance at this time. The Gods know I won’t sleep without it.” There’s a crease of a frown in his brow, Nott watches him turn away and head for the door, chewing gently on the side of his finger as he thinks things that she can’t quite grasp.

 

“Didn’t think you’d turn up.” Molly is rolling his eyes and inviting Caleb in the moment the door opens, Caleb turns fractionally, confused,   
“You were expecting me?” he hadn’t been invited. Molly shrugs as he leads Caleb to the end of the bed and pats a space, Fjord is on the other side, changing. He hums a greeting to Caleb.   
“You and Nott’ve been making your rounds, lately, it was only an estimate at the time you’d be gracing us with your presence.” There’s a showman’s grin, he sits away from Caleb, but his tail moves separately, winds around his wrist. There are two Mollymauk’s in the room, the one he pushes forward as himself, and the one behind his eyes and in the gentle coil around Caleb’s forearm   
“Yes, Nott, actually, told me something.”   
Fjord turns quickly, he and Molly share a warning glance, eyes wide,   
“What’d she tell y’, Caleb?” Fjord sits on the other side of the bed, Caleb’s eyes stay fixed on the lavender stripes against his skin, the way Molly’s tail has turned seemingly to stone.   
“That you, you, you told her, the other day, that you would  _ keep me alive, _ ” he twists the emphasis for the quote, “At the Invulnerable Vagrant.”   
Molly and Fjord both relax visibly, and Molly’s tail tugs at Caleb, the twin tieflings of the room blending into one, Molly wraps his arms around Caleb’s shoulders and pulls him in. Fjord scuffles across the bed to sit on his other side, the tension of equal push and pull within Caleb… snaps.   
There’s no tears, but dry sobs, he buries himself in Molly’s shoulder and his arms loop and squeeze, tight, around his waist.   
“We’ll keep you safe.” Molly promises, his voice muffled by the top of Caleb’s head, he finishes the statement with a brief kiss.   
“Y’ not gonna die on our watch.” Fjord agrees, sets a hand warmly to Caleb’s back, Caleb looses a hand from his death grip on Molly to wave behind him and grab, pull at Fjord, Molly looks up,   
“Oh, cuddle huddle?”   
Caleb gives a breathy laugh in response, nods against Molly’s shoulder. Between Molly and Fjord, they manage to shift and rearrange into a much more comfortable group-hug style scenario, Caleb feels safe in their arms.   
He falls asleep, soon after, easily, the way that foretells he won’t suffer his bad dreams that night.   
Molly scoops him up,   
“Thought we were in trouble there.” He tells Fjord as he stands, stumbling a little with Caleb’s weight. Fjord is up and grabbing Molly’s collar to steady him,   
“Me too. I’m kinda glad she told him that, though.” He leans over to kiss Caleb’s forehead, gentle, like Molly, “I aim to reassure him that there are people that care, even if I have t’ do it the hard way. He’s got you for the soft ‘n’ romantic, I’ll be around to kick int’ shape if he falls out o’ it.”   
Molly laughs through his nose, amused, “Soft and romantic? Me?”   
“You are, an’ don’t you try an’ deny it.” Fjord points as he moves past to the door, opens it for Molly, “You’d lay down y’ life for him at any time. You wanna sleep with him tonight.”   
“I’d lay down my life for you, too, or Beau. You are all important to me, Fjord.” He slips out of the door, “And not whilst he’s asleep, Fjord, that’s not right.”   
There’s a glimmer, Fjord frowns,    
“You know that ain’t what I meant, Molly, fuck off. I’m lockin’ the door, if y’ come back, you’ll be outta luck. Stay.”   
He shuts the door, there’s the unspoken. Fjord can’t be at Caleb’s side, but Molly can, Fjord can make him do what he wants without magic. Molly listens, Molly knows, Molly takes Caleb back to his room and steps over the threshold, glances at Caleb, but the alarm doesn’t wake him and Molly is touched at the heart to know that Caleb had specifically trusted him to the spell.   
Nott stares at him, wide-eyed, as he sets Caleb down on his bed and climbs up next to him.   
“New roomie?” She asks, dubious, and he flashes her a wicked grin,   
“For tonight.”   
She stares at him for a few moments, pause, “... Don’t hurt him.”   
He climbs up and crosses to her and leans, kisses the top of her head.   
“I meant what I told you, we are going to try to keep him alive. And you.”   
“Don’t eat him, then.” Nott’s dubious expression mixes with the impish spark she hides, and Molly chuckles, makes his way back to Caleb’s side and tucks himself with his arm around Caleb’s waist.   
“Not unless he asks.”   
Nott makes a disgusted noise and turns her back to him. He smirks and kisses Caleb’s forehead once more before tucking Caleb’s head under his chin and closing his eyes. 

They’ll keep him safe.


End file.
